Protect the Pope: Closing for Holy Week

Just to let you know that I am not intending to post over the Holy Week and Easter break.

However, as I ‘close’ I would like to share with you some quotes which Nick shared with me today:

Blessed John Paul II speaking in 1980.

“We must be prepared to undergo great trials in the not-too- distant future; trials that will require us to be ready to give up even our lives, and a total gift of self to Christ and for Christ. Through your prayers and mine, it is possible to alleviate this tribulation, but it is no longer possible to avert it, because it is only in this way that the Church can be effectively renewed. How many times, indeed, has the renewal of the Church been effected in blood? This time, again, it will not be otherwise. We must be strong, we must prepare ourselves, we must entrust ourselves to Christ and to His Mother, and we must be attentive, very attentive, to the prayer of the Rosary.”

Cardinal Karol Wojtyla in 1976

“We are now standing in the face of the greatest historical confrontation humanity has ever experienced. I do not think the wide circle of the American Society, or the wide circle of the Christian Community realize this fully. We are now facing the final confrontation between the Church and the anti-church, between the Gospel and the anti-gospel, between Christ and the antichrist. This confrontation lies within the plans of Divine Providence. It is therefore, in God’s Plan, and it must be a trial which the Church must take up, and face courageously

In turn here are some quotes I would like to share with you from Cardinal Ratzinger’s book, To look on Christ: Exercises in Faith, Hope and Love.

“(Agape) demands practice, patience, and also the acceptance of continual setbacks. It presupposes that in the life of faith I come to the inward exchange of my ego with Christ so that his ‘yes’ really penetrates into my being and becomes mine… it is only in this kind of risk-taking, at first still unaccustomed and perhaps a little frightening, that the power to do so grows and the Easter connection becomes ever more recognizable : this crucifixion of oneself – self-denial – leads to a great inner joy, to “resurrection.””

“Real hope does exist beyond all our potential and possibilities, hope in the unbounded love that at the same time is unbounded power”.

I take this opportunity to wish everyone a prayerful Holy Week and all the blessings of the joy of the resurrection.

12 comments to Protect the Pope: Closing for Holy Week

Thank you so much for your continued service to the Church with the Protect the Pope blog. I have recently finished Robert Hugh Benson’s “Lord of the World” – as recommended by Deacon Nick – and how these quotations of Blessed John Paul II (especially) resonate with Rev. Dr. Benson’s stark vision and prophecies in his book. “The final confrontation between the Church and the anti-church, between the Gospel and the anti-gospel, between Christ and the antichrist”, as quoted by Cardinal Karol Wojtyla in 1976, is indeed the Great Battle of our times. Plus overcoming the heresy of the “universal salvation” theory that has taken hold in many quarters, and which mistakenly teaches that all humans are automatically saved by our Lord’s sacrifice at Calvary irrespective of their personal sins or their desire to follow or even to know Christ. May our Lord Jesus Christ uphold his Bride the Church, and protect Her from all heresy and heretics, both without and within the Church. God Bless, and wishing a Happy and a Holy Easter to you, Deacon Nick and the contributors to this blog.